


Meeting of Women

by Merfilly



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Conspiracy, Gen, Illnesses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2019-11-06 20:13:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17946362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: As an illness lays the men low, Susan and Delenn keep things running. Maybe, it will take things out of Shadow...





	Meeting of Women

**Author's Note:**

  * For [facethestrange](https://archiveofourown.org/users/facethestrange/gifts).



In the aftermath of a very strange illness striking not just the station, Babylon 5 was being run by something approaching a skeleton crew. As it had struck most of the systems, not just a single species, the diplomatic staffs were just as affected. Not every species had proven affected by it, and in some cases the typical victims had escaped the illness, it was proving to be a trying time, yet one that was not without rewards.

In the Minbari quarters, Delenn checked a monitor she had set up, looking in on Lennier as he thrashed in the fever. This would pass; the mortality rate was fortunately very low, and her aide was a strong young being. Assured that the illness was progressing normally, Delenn took the time to send a message to Vir Cotto, who was ably filling in for Londo while that senior delegate was incapacitated.

Whatever had spared Vir was for Vir to know alone, and Delenn had not pressed. She did have compassion for him, though, as he had asked at every meeting of the ambassadors just how Lennier was. She found such inter-species cooperation and admiration something she wished to encourage.

After sending it, she recalled she had agreed to other inter-species cooperation as well. Her meeting with the acting commander of the station was later in the morning, so her routine of meditation needed to happen early, not late.

With that in mind, she moved to where she could be comfortable, and started laying aside all of the pressures on her existence, one by one, to begin the necessary steps toward seeking enlightenment. She had done this for years now, so it was second nature at this point.

Delenn sat very still, hands on her knees, palms upturned, eyes closed, and just breathed. Little by little, she edged her awareness outward, reaching toward understanding where she could, and acceptance where she could not.

When Susan came into the room, full of a need to speak and get things done right now, the pose served to be a reminder.

Rushing into things was a fast way to disaster sometimes, just as failing to act decisively was in others. This was a point that did not need an immediate answer, and Susan dropped into the nearby chair to wait, turning over the points of her meeting in her head.

It was a trial for Susan to be patient for long, but she had more than enough details of administration to keep her occupied, mental notes she would not forget to act upon, and contemplation of the effects of her latest shifts in station management to consider. It kept her from noticing just how long it took for Delenn to finally blink her eyes open and see the world right there in her room.

"I did not realize our meeting was so soon today," Delenn said without shame or haste for being found in full meditation.

"I think I arrived early, actually. It seems to take less time to get through the administrative work currently... for some odd reason," Susan said, managing a polite smile at the Minbari delegate.

Delenn let her lips twist in a wry approximation of the expression. "I should not find it so amusing, but yes. It has been easier, not that I don't miss some of the wrangling involved."

"I was thinking that earlier," Susan said. "I had paused to let Michael get his protests in."

Delenn smiled fully at that, ducking her head. "I have had several moments, when I meet with the other delegates still available, of thinking that I should pause before Mollari interrupts me."

"I take it that his aide is not as quick to do so?"

"Not at all, but I suspected as much. Lennier, after all, found his company to be soothing, and pleasant."

"Well, from everything the medical sciences have turned up, this should have run its full course within a few days, and we can go back to listening to the blustering and objections," Susan said. "Until then, we should manage as much as possible to defuse the growing tensions between the Narn and Centauri peoples?"

"We have been mediating that. Vir Cotto is a very sensible young man, when he is not bemoaning that he has no experience and he was never meant to fulfill anything of importance," Delenn agreed. "Now, you had wished to meet with me for reasons other than the current intergalactic war rumors, yes?"

Susan nodded. "Certain rumors coming out of Earth in this chaotic mess, and out of Mars, leads me to believe that factions intend to use the Narn-Centauri issues to begin tearing apart everything we've been building as part of the Babylon project."

Delenn's eyes grew shadowed, before she made a choice for herself, for the galaxy as a whole, and in the name of Valen. She did not want to think that the human concept of men as warlike brutes was universal, and yet… the chaos caused by a flu-strain that attacked men at a disproportionately high number comparatively was showing the war-mongering tended to be with the men.

Or, perhaps, it was just that so many bipedal species had fallen into an evolutionary trend of granting men the power to do such.

That was a philosophical question for later.

"I have heard similar things from Minbar," she admitted. "I suppose, Susan, that you and I should do what we can in the next three or four days to, what was that word? Kibosh? Those plans?"

Susan smiled, finding herself more than relieved that the pseudo-crisis of the illness had forced them to work more closely together. Delenn's sense of humor suited her in its quiet way.

"That was what I was thinking, if you were game for it," Susan said. "I have a few contacts, and will risk Stephen's quarters to get more discreet contacts."

"Just be careful. I know the documents that Minbar discovered about these types of plagues imply that they can mutate."

"Given he's the doctor, he'll be able to best advise me on the protocols to engage," Susan said.

"This is truth. Careful hunting, Susan," Delenn said softly.

The human stood, inclining her head briefly before leaving. Together, they would find a way to head off the dangers, or at least bare them to more intense scrutiny, before the men behind it came back to prominence.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Lightening of Shadows](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19103371) by [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly)




End file.
